Episode I: uketube – ukebox

Part of:

In a slightly run-down back-room of the establishment Gschwandner we put together an interactive two-person cinema – a booth with two cinema chairs, a semitransparent canvas and a little table gave the audience the possibility to lean back in the intermission and relax. If you throw a small object through a slot a bell rings and the duo’s heads appear through flaps in the table to welcome their audience. To cool down we offered cold drinks and had a ventilator that we could set up if asked for before the guests chose their program from a selected menu. The choices ranged from a relaxing cruise on a boat, a live music video with Mathias Koch, to a turbulent and entertaining interpretation of Barry Manilow’s “Copa Cabana”. The short sequences work with effects from live camera-work and projection, as well as the freedom of choice whether or not to watch the actual footage or rather to focus on what is going on behind the canvas. The audience members outside of the booth see how effects such as double projection, delays, different perspectives, etc. are created on a technical level, but they can only imagine what awaits them once it is their turn. This yields an additional effect of intimacy between us and the guests within the booth.